I waited a couple weeks to write this blog.  I had so many things roaming around in my brain after my vacation, that I felt I needed some time to for all the marbles to settle.  Things have settled and now the time has come to put it all into words.

*****

The last year of working at USIS has been Hell on me, mentally.  I tried not to complain much.  I held a lot back.  There was anger at all the things that happened that lead to the end.  My sugar was up.  No matter what we tried, it wouldn’t go down.  Either something was majorly wrong or the stress was really getting to me.

I was happy that I’d finally be forced to move on.  I had been searching for jobs over the past three years, but I just couldn’t find anything appealing.  Now, I would have to find something different.  The company treated those of us who stayed on well.  Things had worked out so that I would be able to take some time to screw my head back on straight.  That’s where this story begins.

I began thinking about how I would handle things when it all came to close.  I knew… roughly… when the end would come… late September.  The date would later get extended a week or so to give us another month of benefits.  The first thing was to take at least a week off.  This week would be, simply put, a “me” week.  I would do nothing except catch up with myself and do little chores that needed done.

Beyond that, I wanted to do something that involved travelling.  I had begun my planning a couple months before the end.  I began looking into different things to go see or do.  I chose, very early on, to include motorcycling in whatever I did.  I narrowed my choices down to three locations:  1) California – The coastal highways on a motorcycle and other locations, 2) Denver, Colorado – I loved that area when I travelled there for work.  The scenery was just so different than home, 3) The western end of the Appalachian Mountains – “The Tail of the Dragon” lies here.  Motorcyclists from all over the world come to ride this stretch of road.

I reviewed costs of hotels, motorcycle rental, attractions I wanted to see, and overall time I would spend.  I don’t have a trailer to haul my bike and I was going by myself, so renting a motorcycle was the most feasible option.  The decision was easy.  Fall leaves were coming on.  I’ve always enjoyed the mountains of North Carolina.  I’ve driven through them in a car or truck several times.  It also would be the cheapest option, as I could easily drive my truck down.

I began researching the best times to head down to the area I had in mind.  Fall leaf season began in early October in the high altitudes.  The leaf color progressed down to the valleys by the end of October, leaving the altitudes barren or severely darkened.  I also noted that traffic appeared to be heaviest around the last week of October.  I narrowed the choice down to October 11th to the 17th.  The leaves above 3000 feet would be changing.  The weather should still be fairly comfortable for riding.  Hopefully… traffic would be bearable.

Where to stay was next on my list.  This decision came fairly quickly.  I looked at places in Cherokee, Bryson City and Asheville, as well as, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.  I found a little place on Route 28 in a little town called Stecoah, North Carolina.  The Tuskegee Motel is a little Mom/Pop roadside motel from days of old.  It was centrally located to most of the places that I wanted to ride the motorcycle.  The things that were a little further away would be taken in by truck later in the week.  By this point, I had a pretty good idea of how the week would fall in line.

The motorcycle rental was next.  I knew I wanted to rent something that had some hardware for carrying extra clothing and my camera gear.  Most of the machines were similarly priced per day.  I had decided on a company called Smokey Mountain Motorcycle Rentals.  It was a smaller company but it was just up the road from the hotel.  When I called to reserve the bike I wanted, it was booked.  He offered me the Ducati Multistrada 1200s at a discounted price.  I agreed.  I also booked tickets for some of the events I had planned via the Internet so I wouldn’t have to worry about tickets when I got there.  I’m glad I did.

I left Sunday, the 11th.  The drive down was beautiful.  Lower West Virginia and most of the way through Virginia greeted me with beautiful leaf colors above 3500 feet.  My phone rang somewhere in Virginia.  It was the motorcycle rental company.  “Would it be possible to pick up the bike that night instead of Monday morning?” “Of course.”  I headed to the hotel.  Got the truck unloaded, then headed up to the shop.  One of my biggest fears came true as we worked on the rental agreement.  The bank froze my card.  I had tried to call them the week before so this wouldn’t happen.  I couldn’t get through due to a merger that was going on.  Fortunately, I had taken my emergency card.  It was dark by the time I left the shop and headed back to the hotel.  Now, I’m in an area that I don’t know the roads. Its getting foggy.  I haven’t had dinner.  The nearest food is 12 miles away in Robbinsville.  Off I went into the darkness in search of food.  I ate at McDonald’s that night… More on that later.

The next morning, I awoke to fog… something that would be present every morning but Tuesday.  The fog burnt off about 9 am.  I was ready to start my day.  I already had my gear loaded for a full day of riding.  I had coworkers that rode the area before.  I had taken their advice and had warmer gear and other things with me just incase.  I headed off to Robbinsville for breakfast… McDonalds again.  I got gas at the Shell Station attached to the McDonalds.  Every vehicle at the pumps had some form of camera mounted on it… My bike would as well, at some point.  Those folks were headed to the Tail of the Dragon.  I was headed to the Cherohala Skyway… a 40+ mile, scenic road over and along the ridges at altitudes, at times, above 5500 feet.

I had purchased a GoPro knock off camera.  It was cheap.  It worked.  Why pay $300 or more for a camera I may only use this vacation.  $55 was a good deal.  I hadn’t put the camera out on the mount that someone had already affixed to the bike windshield.  Today was to be a scenic ride.  I thought to myself, “Scenic ride… I’ll just take still pictures with my DSLR.”  I finished breakfast.  Gassed up the bike.  I ended up chatting with a group of motorcyclists from Europe who were in to see the sights and challenge the Dragon.  For all the nasty things you hear about bikers… I met some of the nicest folks while on this vacation…  All of them on two (or three) wheels.

I hopped on the bike and headed toward the sign just up the road pointing to the entrance to the Cherohala Skyway.  The first 3 corners caused me to turn around, go back to the intersection where there was a pull off, to put my camera on.  From this point on… The camera was always mounted while I was riding.

The ride was beautiful.  I quickly learned that GPS devices, whether in my phone or the one on the bike, were basically useless for much more than a reference.  The ride got extended by better than 60 miles because I misread the GPS during one of its tantrums.  I ended up much further west into Tennessee than I had planned.  It was a beautiful ride.  I ate that night at Lynn’s Diner in Robbinsville.  When I travel, I like to eat at Mom/Pop typed places or places I can’t eat back home.  The ride totaled just over 220 miles.  I was beat.

Rain had been in the forecast for Monday evening.  It hadn’t started raining yet when I finally drifted off to sleep around 11:30 pm.   Sometime around 2:30 in the morning, The storm kicked up.  There was a huge flash of light and an immediate boom.  Power went out.  This hotel is in the middle of nowhere.  I knew immediately that unless a backup generator kicked in, there would be no water until the power came back on.  I reached over and checked my computer.  I had left it running to get the video from the day up.  It was on battery.  I shut it down and drifted back to sleep.  In the morning, I found that my little camera and charger were dead.  My iPhone and computer seemed to be ok.  I could have lost them both.  I found out, as we were waiting for the power company to get the power back on, that the motel had lost several pieces of electronics.  One of the ladies in the end room claimed sparks flew out of her phone.

Tuesday’s plan was to ride The Tail of the Dragon.  I really wanted to record that but didn’t have a mount for my iPhone that would allow me to substitute it for the now fried GeekPro.  A quick search of the internet showed that Killboy.com’s store was an authorized GoPro Dealer.  They rent and sell cameras.  I decided that if I could get a basic GoPro at a decent price, I would buy it.  If not, I would at least rent for the day.  As I headed out on the bike, I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn’t have video of the trip… Especially after the ride the day before.

I ended up buying a Garmin Virb Elite at Killboy’s store.  It was less expensive than the GoPro and it did a WHOLE lot more.  It also used the GoPro style mounts I had brought to mount my GeekPro.  I recorded my first run with a card I grabbed out of my case.  It was a small card that already had stuff from another event on it.  I cringed as the camera shut down before I finished the run.  I did the south bound run back over the Dragon and stopped back at the Killboy shop.  I bought another 32gb card.  I could now record as much video as I wished with the cards I had back at the hotel.

I stayed close to the hotel on Tuesday.  The Dragon is only 15 or so miles north of my motel.  I also took in several of the TVA built dams that are in the area.  There are also a few waterfalls in the area.  Some are simple, small flows, down the mountain sides along the road.  Others are large, beautiful cascades.  It was a beautiful day of riding, even though, the odometer only clicked up 100 or so miles.

Wednesday, I planned to ride up to Clingman’s Dome.  It would take about 45 minutes to get there at normal speeds.  Traffic increased the closer I got to The Great Smoky Mountain’s National Park.  I hit major traffic as I headed back the road that leads to the dome.  Clingman’s dome is an observation tower on top of the mountains.  They say on a clear day you can see 200 miles.  I sat in traffic that started a good 3/4 mile before the parking area for the dome.  I found a spot to slip the bike into.  I had read that the trail up to the tower was a steep half mile walk.  It was paved but not level.  I had decided that I would only do what my back would tolerate.  After sitting in traffic on a motorcycle, I made up my mind that I would make the top, if it meant only moving up the path 100 feet at a time.  I made the top and took a bunch of pictures.  A guy came out of the woods.  He had hiked the Appalachian Trail the whole way from its northern most starting point.  He would end in Georgia.  His parents would meet him to hike the last 10 miles together.  The whole experience was much more interesting than I had suspected it to be.

I hadn’t eaten properly all day.  The exertion of climbing up and back down the hill had run me down.  Gatlinburg was only 15 miles down the other side of the mountain.  I had a lot of time before I would need to run back over to the Carolina side of the mountains.  I found a place to park the bike and a pretty good place to eat.  I munched down my Filet Mignon while sitting at a table along a little creek.  While I ate, it was suggested that I take in Cabes Cove.  I found it on the map.  It looked closer to my base of operations but in fact it is on the Gatlinburg side of the mountains.  I ended up power walking the bike around about 12 miles of the scenic loop.  Ugh!  By the time I got out of there, It was dark.  My hands and shoulders were aching profusely.

I needed fuel before I crossed back over the mountains.  I decided to head back to Gatlinburg to fuel up.  A bear ran out onto the road in front of me and then turned back.  That did me in.  I got gas and found myself a cheap hotel.  They way I felt and the number of LARGE critters that could cross the road in the darkness meant it was unsafe for me to attempt to get back to Tuskegee that night.  My body was out of whack from not eating properly and the exertion of Clingman’s Dome.  I ordered a pizza for dinner at 10:30.  I ate half before going to bed.  The other half would be breakfast.  I didn’t have my pills with me.  The dangers of riding back, far outweighed missing my pills for a day.  I slept fairly well.

Thursday, I got up early.  I ate my pizza, loaded up the bike, and headed off to climb up and over the mountains.  I stopped at the Tennessee/North Carolina boarder to take pictures.  For the second time in 3 days, I was riding above the clouds (see cover picture of this blog).  I had passed the Road to Nowhere on the way up on Wednesday.  I turned off to see what it was all about.  I enjoyed the ride.  It lived up to its name.  I ate at a local diner in Bryson City.  I headed back to the hotel.  I needed to prep the bike to return it Friday morning.

The bike was turned in Friday morning.  I would be back in my truck for the rest of my journey.  Friday afternoon brought a train ride on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad.  I spent some time in their museum and gift shop.  It has several model train layouts, as well as, a large number of antique trains.  We got back from the train ride about 5:30.  I had planned to eat at the same diner I had eaten on Thursday.  The only problem… North Carolina rolls up its streets at 5 pm… if not earlier.  Here stands a train load of people… and very few places to eat are still open in town.

I walked down the main drag.  I passed an Italian Bistro.  The aroma coming from this place instantly confirmed that this is real home cooked Italian food.  I entered and put my name on the substantial waiting list.  Another train had since arrived.  This little place was packed to the gills.  People were waiting on the sidewalk just to put their name on the waiting list.  I got seated fairly quickly.  The Italian owner paced the floor, yelling in Italian.  The hostess cringed but continued her duties.  I ate quickly and tipped the waitress a healthy tip.  She was busting her butt.  I got high quality service in that crazy packed little place.  I couldn’t get that kind of service around home in a place that was empty.  She must have mentioned my tip to the owner.  He came over and shook my hand as I prepared to leave.  I thanked him for the delicious meal and prompt service.  I went back to my hotel.

Saturday, I took in Biltmore House and Grounds.  Interesting place… Expensive… but interesting.  I ate at the Stable Restaurant.  Yes… It used to be the stable for the mansion.  I did a wine tasting, which was included in the cost.  I have never liked wine.  This tasting was no different…  Yuck.  I saw several deer as I was leaving.

I got a call on the way back that I was supposed to change rooms that day.  This had been discussed when I made my reservation.  When I checked in, they said no it had been worked out.  No big deal.  They just didn’t want me to walk in on some other guests in my old room.  They had moved all my stuff.  They didn’t just move it.  They placed it in the new room EXACTLY like it was in the original room.  They must have taken a picture of how I had things.  That’s how close it was.

All in all, it was a great vacation.  I did just about everything I had planned.  The things that I missed were either optional things or things that were low on my list.  I would have to say this trip may have outranked my last Disney World Vacation.  I don’t know if it will be yearly, but this vacation will be revisited.

I’ve rambled enough for this one.

~Cappy